


Starlight

by jolecia



Category: Poldark (TV 2015)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Mini-Fic, Not Canon Compliant, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-25
Updated: 2019-01-25
Packaged: 2019-10-16 01:48:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17540375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jolecia/pseuds/jolecia
Summary: Just a short minific written for the tumblr prompt "George x Elizabeth + stars/space", featuring baby Ursula.





	Starlight

Elizabeth awoke in the dark of night to the realisation that her husband was not beside her. She frowned in displeasure, eyes not yet adjusted to the blackness of their bedchamber now that the fire and the candles that had been lit earlier that evening had sputtered into nothingness. She remembered sitting impatiently, waiting for George, who had retired to his study for much of the evening to finish off some important work which could not wait until morning—though what she did not know, to join her. After that, she must have fallen asleep, she supposed, and she could only guess from the deepness of the shadows and the coolness of the room that it was now the small hours of the morning. So where was he?

Her question was answered almost immediately as her eyes began to adjust to the gloom, and she heard a soft rustling of fabric, a quiet little coo and a slight creaking of the floorboards beneath the window. She turned her gaze towards the direction the sounds were coming from, and there she found him, dressed in a pristine white nightshirt and his silk dressing gown, curls loose and disordered, and cradling their baby daughter, Ursula, in his arms. The little girl was smiling toothlessly up at him, giggling quietly as he bounced her gently up and down, and Elizabeth felt a smile of her own tug at the corner of her lips at the sight.

At near eight months old, Ursula, while becoming ever more proficient at crawling and—much like her elder brother—making mischief, was still inclined to wake during the night, and did not at all like being separated from her parents, as they had discovered through their attempts to move her crib from their bedchamber to the nursery, to which she had protested vociferously. It seemed that she particularly missed her papa on these occasions, for she was very attached to George, and always appeared at her happiest in her father’s arms. This was more than evident now, as she stared adoringly up at him, sending him a gummy smile and clutching at the soft silk at his shoulder in her tiny fist.

Elizabeth watched quietly, not wanting to disturb the tranquillity of the moment, as the babe’s attention turned towards the window. At first she wondered if some flurry of movement—perhaps a bat or an owl—had caught the little girl’s eye, before she realised that Ursula’s gaze was directed upwards at inky black sky. It was a clear night and, it being a new moon, the light of the stars was sharp and bright without anything to compete against. Ursula was staring up at them, one little hand balled up in her mouth, the other reaching out to the glass of the window pane as if to try and touch the twinkling specks of light. With a smile which Elizabeth could just about make out in the darkness, George shifted her in his arms so that she would have a clearer view of the night sky.

“Aren’t the stars pretty tonight, my love?,” he murmured to the child, so quietly that Elizabeth had to strain her ears to hear—likely he was conscious of disturbing her, not yet aware that she was already awake—and Ursula let out a muffled gurgle which might have been a noise of agreement. “I have rarely seen them so very bright.”

Considering that George had spent the vast majority of his life focusing on the miniscule writings of the bank ledger as opposed to the vastness of the skies, that didn’t surprise Elizabeth in the slightest. His voice, however, had turned Ursula’s attention—never far away from him when he was present, even with the tantalising temptation of shiny things to draw her gaze dangling before her—back to her papa, and with another soft coo, she reached out and, with the same quiet reverence with which she had touched the sparkling reflections of the stars, placed a little hand gently on his cheek. Father and daughter beamed at each other, and with the starlight caught in their identical blond curls and bright eyes, affection clear in each face despite the darkness, Elizabeth could not help but be struck by how very beautiful they both were.

“I do not think I am quite so fascinating a sight as the stars, my dear” George whispered to the little girl with a slight huff of amusement, eyes sparkling as he regarded her, and Elizabeth, suddenly filled with the urge to speak, allowed it to overcome her.

“And I think you do yourself an injustice,” she said, causing her husband, who had been under the impression that she was asleep, to start and whirl back towards the bed; Ursula giggled at the sudden motion. “And I am quite sure our daughter agrees with me.”

“Oh Elizabeth, I hope we did not disturb you—” Though she could not see it in the darkness of the room, she suspected from the slightly flustered tone of his voice that he was blushing, wrongfooted by both the sudden realisation that she was awake and the unexpected compliment. Elizabeth smiled affectionately as she slid out of bed and came to join them by the window, pressing a soft, lingering kiss to his cheek.

“You did not” she assured him as she drew back. They exchanged a small smile, only half seen amongst the shadows and, as Elizabeth raised a hand to stroke over Ursula’s soft curls, they turned as one to watch the stars in companiable silence.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
